Analysing Specific Capacity and Energy Density of some popular batteries

In my last article, I was concentrating more about the Specific Capacity of different cathode materials. But this is only one part of the story when a complete cell is concerned. To find the Specific Capacity of a particular battery chemistry the whole chemical reaction has to be analyzed.

Essentially the method used here is similar to that of previous analysis. Instead of just the cathode material, we have to consider the complete chemical reaction taking place in both cathode and anode. But the rest of the calculation is nearly the same. In short,Specific Capacity = (N x F) / (Total weight of all components)
where,
N = Change in oxidation state or the number of electrons released.
F = Faraday constant, 26801mAh/Mole

In this article I will be discussing about three popular battery chemistries.

Conclusion:
It could be easily seen that Lead Acid battery, even though most widely used has a very low theoretical capacity. An interesting finding is that, the current practical capacities of both Lithium-Ion and Sodium Sulphur batteries are reaching very near to the theoretical capacity of Lead Acid technology.